At the end of May, Samsung confirmed that the IHRN (Irregular Heart Rhythm Notification) Health component has been approved by the FDA and will be coming to its smartwatches this year, starting with the upcoming Galaxy Watch 6. And today, the company revealed more availability details for this advanced Samsung Health feature.
Samsung says the IHRN feature, which detects heart rhythms suggestive of atrial fibrillation (AFib), will be available later this summer in more than a dozen markets. The list includes:
- Argentina, Azerbaijan, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Georgia, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Panama, UAE, USA, and South Korea.
In its official blog post today, the company further explained that, after securing FDA approval, the IHRN feature was also greenlit by the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety last week.
One UI Watch 5 to exit beta stages in a few weeks
In a roundabout way, with this new announcement, Samsung confirmed that the One UI Watch 5 update will be available “starting this summer.”
The company says the IHRN Samsung Health feature is a One UI Watch 5 component and will debut with the upcoming Galaxy Watch 6 series. However, Samsung also confirms that the Galaxy Watch 4 and later models will receive the IHRN Health component through a later firmware update.
Samsung has yet to reveal any availability details for the Galaxy Watch 6 series, but now, there's no doubt that the company intends to release the next-gen smartwatches by the end of August. Samsung also more or less confirmed that the next Unpacked event, where the Watch 6 lineup should be announced, will take place in South Korea.
And according to industry reports, Unpacked might be hosted near the end of July, which is highly unusual, considering that Samsung's previous Unpacked events took place in August. Why an earlier date is unclear, but regarding the location, Samsung chose South Korea because it “is meaningful and important,” revealed Lee Young-hee in an interview at the beginning of June.
